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History

The origins of ASPEX (originally a division of RJ Lee Group) date back to 1992. Recognizing the limitations and costs associated with traditional scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the company developed and introduced the world's first "personalized" SEM, or PSEM. The PSEM did for the world of microscopy what the PC did for the world of computing—it brought it out of the lab and into the everyday world of industry, education, government, and military operations. The timing of the introduction coincided with a number of important trends, including increased emphasis on materials characterization, the outsourcing of R&D applications to service laboratories, and the "quality revolution" of the 1990s.

A key strategy of the company from day one was to provide customers with totally integrated solutions to their microscopy needs. Thus, early on, ASPEX took advantage of the ability of electron-beam technology to both provide an image as well as the exact elemental composition of a specimen—providing customers, in essence, two highly complex instruments in a single unit.

Acceptance of the PSEM was rapid in both the traditional "white coat" scientific laboratory market and in industrial factory-floor QC applications.

With the ever-increasing emphasis upon materials characterization, statistical process control (SPC), and Six Sigma programs, manufacturers, in particular, began to look to ASPEX for cost-effective solutions for automating the analysis of materials in routine production environments.

Following the purchase of the company by an investment group in 1995, the company continued to invest in a variety of significant innovations. These included:

Perception^TM family of software
Built on a Microsoft® Windows® platform, it was the first software to provide user-friendly management and control of both imaging and elemental X-ray analysis of samples.

Automated Feature Analysis (AFA)
First truly integrated SEM/EDX software in the industry that can locate and analyze discrete features in a specific application automatically—orders of magnitude faster than a human operator.

Complex Feature Analysis (CFA)
Software designed to locate and identify irregular and undefined features.

MicroNavigator and MacroNavigator
Software and hardware aids that simplify the relocating of features on the micro level while providing a "big-picture" view of the complete specimen.

iStore and iTable
Software for the database storage, management, and retrieval of electronic images and related data.

ASPEX GSR (Gun Shot Residue)
Dedicated Windows-based software for the automated analysis of gun shot residue in forensic labs.

ASPEX Rx
Dedicated solutions for contamination control in the pharmaceutical industry.

ASPEX AQC
Dedicated solutions designed to help automotive manufacturers and vendors achieve new standards of critical cleanliness in production processes.

ASPEX for Steel
For many years, inclusion analysis has been at the forefront of investigative work to determine castability issues and improve general product quality.

ASPEX JEMM
Dedicated systems for the analysis of micro-debris in military jet engines.

ASPEX FD
Development of the first portable SEM/EDX systems that can be used in the field or factory under extreme environmental conditions, including high vibration.


In 2000, the company's name was changed to ASPEX Corporation. ASPEX is an acronym for Application Specific Products employing Electron Beam and X-ray technology.